Digital Cipher No. 19

I. Music & Tech

In the MixCloud

Last week, SoundCloud rival MixCloud finalized negotiations and signed a licensing deal with Warner Music. With the rapid evolution of the digital listening landscape a licensing deal with any of the majors is definitely seen as a competitive advantage. Regardless, as a user generated audio service that specializes in long form content MixCloud does differentiate itself from most other services. Also, they plan to pioneer a subscription model that is based on a much more customized solution and gives consumers the opportunity to subscribe to specific audio creators. Read more about MixCloud’s unique approach to audio consumption here.

Pick Your Podcast : Next Up Castbox

As the podcast investment frenzy continues, Castbox recently joined the party announcing a $16 million dollar “Series A” round of funding. Castbox, was founded by Ex Googler Xiaoyu Wang and offers an intuitive interface to help users access and track content. In addition to easily syncing across all devices, Castbox using natural language processing to index the content and make it easier for users to access exactly what they are looking for. To hear more about Castbox and the growing podcast space read here.

Spotify Artist Spotlight

Spotify continues to add to their gamut of features and tools with a mobile app specifically tailored to the promotional needs of artists. The mobile app is currently available on iOS and gives artists the ability to not only monitor stats, but also update profile info, picks, and playlists. This product is ultimately the evolution of Spotify Artist which debuted in June and originated from the Fans Insights initiative that was introduced in 2015. To keep up on Spotify and this evolution of this initiative read here.